Archive: October, 2011

Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Classical Music Critic

The giant rat flashes strike signs while Carmen flaps in the wind in front of the Kimmel Center Saturday afternoon. Peter Dobrin/Inquirer staff

This is scheduled to appear in Sunday's print edition of the Inquirer.

The giant rat has been deflated. Extra security has gone home. And after an 18-hour strike by workers at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the shows will go on today.

Leaders of the Kimmel and local 8 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees penned a deal Saturday putting a strike on hiatus. After talks failed to produce a new labor deal for stagehands, ushers, wardrobe and box office workers, the two sides decided to spend the next week in a “cooling off” period.

Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Classical Music Critic

Update: 6:30 p.m. Saturday: IATSE union and Kimmel Center leaders have agreed to a deal that puts the strike of Kimmel workers on the back burner for at least a week. The Kimmel will reopen its theaters Sunday, and all performances will go on as scheduled at least through next Sunday, Oct. 9. Talks are expected to begin again, but no sooner than Oct. 10. More details soon.

Peter Dobrin is a classical music critic and culture writer for The Inquirer. Since 1989, he has written music reviews, features, news and commentary for the paper, covering such topics as the Philadelphia Museum of Art at the Venice Biennale, expansion of the Curtis Institute of Music, the Philadelphia Orchestra's bankruptcy declaration in 2011, Philadelphia's evolving performing arts center and the general health of arts and culture.

Dobrin was a French horn player. He earned an undergraduate degree in performance from the University of Miami, and received a master's degree in music criticism from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Elliott Galkin. He has no time to practice today.